It is as such known from the prior art to include metadata in a transport stream. The term “metadata” is used for all kinds of data about data. This encompasses data which is descriptive about content, such as program title and synopsis. Further the term metadata does also encompass data which relates to the data transmission and/or recording process itself.
For example, the TV-Anytime forum has published metadata specifications which define the attractors and data structures that allow consumers to find, navigate and manage content. The “TV-Anytime” standard is an emerging standard which is defined by the TV-Anytime forum.
Such metadata is also referred to as “attractors” because it can attract a consumer to content. Attractors allow consumers to find, navigate and manage content from various sources. In addition to attractors metadata as defined by TV-Anytime also includes information about user preferences and history. User preference information, such as favorite actors or TV-shows, is included within the scope of TV-Anytime metadata to allow software agents to select content on the consumers behalf.
The metadata representation format is a specification of how TV-Anytime metadata is represented in the extended mark up language (XML). However the TV-Anytime metadata is not restricted to XML can also be encoded in a binary format for transmission or storage. Details of the metadata specification are published in the document SP003V10 of 16 Feb. 2001 which is available on the web-site www.tv-anytime.org. So far no transport mechanism is disclosed for the metadata within the scope of the TV-Anytime specification; also the manner in which the metadata is stored, accessed and used on a personal digital recorder (PDR) is unknown.
Further it is as such known from the prior art to include metadata in a MPEG-2 transport stream. Such transport streams are used for digital video broadcasting. In this instance the metadata is included in the transport stream in the form of digital video broadcast-service information (DVB-SI). The DVB-SI format is described in EN 300 468, DVB Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems.
For the recording of a DVB program by means of a digital video recorder (DVR) a so-called DVR-standard is currently under development. However, a problem associated with the recording of a DVB signal by means of a DVR is that not all program related information (DVB-SI) is stored on the storage medium, e.g. an optical disc. The loss of this descriptive data has serious disadvantages for the DVR operation. Furthermore, the user cannot include user provided data such as annotations or other user provided content into the recording. Finally, the DVR format does not provide for a means to store such information outside the stream for making metadata available for navigation purposes.